Becky Beal in her essay “Disqualifying the Official: An Exploration of Social Resistance Through the Subculture of Skateboarding” quotes from a skater’s letter to the editor of a newspaper:
“Skaters have a completely different culture from the norms of the world’s society. We dress differently, we have our own language, use our own slang, and live by our own rules. People feel threatened by foreign attitudes. Everyone has his own views on different types of society and their own stereotypes…Please stop viewing us as a totally negative race of people.” (1996, p256)
Whilst skateboarding was receiving widespread negative attention, an even stronger backlash and focus on societal rebellion had been aimed at punks in the United Kingdom as evidenced in Birmingham School scholar’s Dick Hebdige seminal text Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979), outlined earlier in the discussion on Subculture. Understanding the impetus for punk within Southern California also draws on similar motivation for the need to estrange oneself from “mainstream” society, but the nuanced reasons of the punk rebellion were localised. Skateboarders that were associated with the Dogtown Z-Boys, had a similar ethos to those punks in far away London or those in their own city of Los Angeles, California. They were hyperconformist to their own cultural subcultures in relation to the socio political society that they lived in, and they felt a need for self expression in protesting at what was happening on a larger scale within their society. Skate punk music was the medium that facilitated on a larger and more influential scale what skate punks were thinking and feeling.
Punk’s role as challenging hegemony obliquely through style which Hebdige describes as going “against nature, interrupting the process of ‘normalization’. (Hebdige, 1979, p18) differentiates it from rock which has in effect succumbed in many ways to capitalist modes of commercial success. Frith addresses the notion that Punks make the same claims as hippies did in the 60s in that a musician’s “authenticity” is challenged once they have achieved commercial success and they are then charged with “selling out”. (Frith, 1981, p51) Michael Lydon argued at the end of the sixties that rather than being an example of how freedom can be achieved within the capitalist structure, the rock industry has instead been an example of how “capitalism can, almost without a conscious effort, deceive those whom it oppresses…” (Frith, 1983, p52). Punk therefore emerged toward the end of the seventies in the hope to “explore the hard edges of youthful frustration” (Frith, 1981, p52) that commercial rock music could no longer do. The tradition of resistance in music means that new music youth subcultures supersede the ones before them who have been “softened” (Frith, 1981) by the commercialisation which is a part of hegemonic society.
The new music subcultures, such as punk, create resistance to the hegemonic social order and encourage the perpetuation of a reflexive self, which generates authenticity and meaning. Fashion was an important way in which to signify the subculture of skate punk. Even though Mike Muir proclaimed that they did not even think about what they were wearing, as it was what they had worn since they were kids (Fo, 1987, p59). Their distinct fashion of the bandana, the Pendleton’s, baggy jeans and vans shoes was influential in signifying to the general public who they were and what they represented. Interestingly, the choice of clothing may have sounded incidental, but the bandana was deemed a part of Latino gang culture that had strongly permeated through the Venice community that the Suicidal Tendencies came from. Whilst Mike Muir always denied that the Suicidal Tendencies were not a part of a gang, this became the source of contention many times as the LAPD denied them permits to play due to supposed affiliations. To be associated with a gang, or look like a gang member was another method of challenging mainstream perception and identifying with an outcast social group (that of the Latino gang).
The history of the Pendleton is aligned with Suicidal Tendencies in the way in which it rose to prominence as an “alternative” material, due to the development of a different coloured wool plaid, promising “innovative” design in the 1920s (Pendleton website). The Pendleton brought out sportswear after the war, proclaiming that this “new concept of dressing was best explained as what Dad wore when he wasn’t wearing his suit” (Pendleton website). It then became a part of the Californian surf culture of the 1960s and 70s, signifying how the surfers represented themselves as different to the suit and tie work wear that men wore in mainstream culture. The surf culture largely informed Venice beach dress codes, which influenced those who wanted to be a part of this alternative community and lifestyle. In both of these music videos Suicidal Tendencies are seen wearing Pendleton’s, signifying their difference to the mainstream. The wearing of the bandana and the flip cap immediately classified them with gangster association. This is aligned with Gelder’s analysis of how subculture is understood, as the bandana and flip cap signified “their association with territory” (Gelder, 2007, ppiii), the territory being Venice Beach. Venice Beach has had several prominent Latino orientated gangs, with Venice 13 even being linked to ST’s first drummer, Amery Smith due to a hat he was wearing, but the band denied the connection. The Suicidal Cycos, were a gang formed by the fans of the band. The band presented like a gang, or a family, all four fighting for the same thing. (See the liner notes in each ST album, which always thank the Suicidal “familia”, once again using Latino terms as their expression to show that they have created their own form of family through their music. In their 2013 album, 13, they write in the liner notes: “A big thanks to all that have supported us, stood by us, and spread the music and word all these years…Thank you for being a part of this journey and adopting Suicidal as your second family.” (Suicidal Records, 13, 2013)).Whilst gangs, especially those of the Venice Beach area were considered criminalised and dangerous, Muir never admitted to affiliating with any of these gangs, but again signified the “other” or “outcast of society” by dressing like a gangster. Still, to this day, when photographed with fans, Muir holds his first two fingers in the V shape; V for Venice Beach, his territory. Through representing himself and the band in this manner, Suicidal Tendencies were challenging the boundaries of self-classification and as Gelder explained in his representation of subculture, Suicidal Tendencies were creating “non-domestic forms of belonging” (Gelder, 2007, piii). In contrast, the father and authority figures in “Institutionalized” are all wearing traditional suits, or variations on that, with a tie, shirt and slacks. In “Possessed to Skate”, the parents are wearing loud Hawaiian shirts portraying the traditional gaudy holiday wear of white middle class suburbia.
In a 1987 Thrasher interview by M Fo with Mike Muir, his opinions on fashion and individuality are prominent throughout. Interestingly, Muir attacks the “hypocricies” (p59) of the hardcore punk scene. Protesting that a prominent punk band member came to him and said that, “You guys could do good, but you shouldn’t dress like that. You should wear leather and look more punk…” (p59). Muir expresses his frustration to the interviewer that in fact, by expressing that all punks look the same they are actually denying their individuality, “The whole thing was that they’re trying to tell us to look the way they do – conform – while at the same time they’re talking about being individuals.” Muir’s expression of authenticity was largely entrenched in how they expressed themselves as individuals, “Where we are, that’s the way we dress. If we changed, we would be posing.” (p59) From this position, authenticity is promulgated through continuing to dress the way they always have done, as a part of the Venice skate punk scene and in turn, passively influencing their fans who also dressed in the same way to display their support of this band, their music and the subculture to which they belonged.
Graffiti features prominently in both music videos. As a signifier of the skate punk subculture, it displays how
“…probable spaces that can be adopted and reclaimed from mere utility, openly rendered with new meaning, and transformed and freshly inhabited. Such spaces become interfaces between people, architecture, and skateboard, thus translating a physical terrain beyond its usual frozen sense of space and time, disconnecting the space from its previous codes, boundaries, and worth.” (Ensminger, 2011, p111)
This is especially exemplified in “Possessed to Skate” where the traditional paintings are smashed or pulled forcibly off the walls, and replaced with Suicidal Tendencies logos and artwork indicative of the Venice Beach area. This is a process of appropriation of the space, transforming it from a boring suburban house to create new meaning, one that pertains to the youth that are a part of the skate punk scene. Graffiti as displayed in both videos, but especially “Possessed to Skate”, helps to localise the “invading” skate punks into this suburban landscape, tagging the walls, leaving their imprint, and proclaiming this space as their own. Again, Gelder’s subcultural signification of “their association with territory”(2007, piii) is displayed through the marking of their territory, generating new meaning in what was once a traditional suburban space.
The use of graffiti as a visual medium is understood as an alternative art form, associated with “underground criminal or deviant subcultures [which] are typically defined by expressivity and lifestyle.” (Encheva, 2013, p54) This fits in with the understanding of skate punk, considered a deviant and rebellious subculture, and re-emphasises the pushing of the boundaries, (Encheva, 2013, p54) denigrating what mainstream society holds so sacred, the middle class suburban house. Once again, the influence of the Dogtown Z-Boys is represented through “the 1978 skull-and-dagger graphic designed for the (Powell-Peralta) Ray “Bones” Rodriguez deck by V. Courtland Johnson. Similar skull designs were omnipresent on Powell-Peralta boards throughout the mid-1980s…” (Ensminger, 2011, p112) The artwork contributed largely to the signification of this subculture. The wall of the suburban house in the “Possessed to Skate” video becomes a Suicidal Tendencies mural, displaying their logo and other imagery that was representative of the band. This artwork was reminiscent of the Venice Hispanic street culture, which had been conveyed to the Zephyr skate team through the murals on the walls by La Regneracion in 1972 at Eastern Avenue and Conley Drive. The use of skulls may also allude to Mexican folk art (Posada’s Day of the Dead skeletons, etc.), voodoo art, lowrider culture, skull motifs used by Stanley Mouse in early 1970s Grateful Dead art, and outlaw biker counterculture graphics in general. (Ensminger, 2011, p112) In his book, Visual Vitriol (2012, p112), Ensminger conveys that these visual signs displayed the “emboldened, free-roaming, atavistic skater lifestyle and rowdiness epitomised by such raucous punk bands. In social spaces marked by rigid and limiting laws, the skeletal figures also convey metaphors of skating as a kind of pestilence: undead figures embody both the unwelcome disease, morbidity, and horror of the contemporary urban wasteland but offer a resilient athleticism and fluidity as well.”
It was in this continual portrayal of the outcast throughout the music videos, that Suicidal Tendencies aligned themselves in an aesthetic way with their authentic representation. All of these visual elements and signifiers aided in conveying to the audience the certain ideologies and philosophies that were the style of their subculture. Consistently portraying a sense of the “otherness”, the graffiti is yet another sign that skate punk was a whole cultural lifestyle, and not just a genre of music or a group of skateboarders.
REFERENCES
Beal, B. (1996) “Alternative Maculinity and Its Effects on Gender Relations in
the Subculture of Skateboarding.” Journal of Sport Behavior 19, no. 3: 204-
20
Encheva, K. (2013) “Mediatizing crimes of style: a research on the changing
nature of crime and deviance”, Ghent University: Belgium
(https://www.academia.edu/835285/Mediatizing_crimes_of_style_a_resear
ch_on_the_changing_nature_of_crime_and_deviance Accessed 20
September 2013)
Ensminger, David. (2010) A Visual Vitriol – The Street Art and Subcultures of
the Punk and Hardcore Generation, University Press of
Mississippi/Jackson:USA
Fo. M (1987) “Mike Muir”, Thrasher, May 1987, pp56-63 (Accessed 20
September 2013)
Frith, S (1981) Sound Effects: youth, leisure and the politics of rock n roll,
Pantheon Books: New York
Gelder, K. (2007) Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice,
Routledge: New York
Pendleton USA Website (2013) “History” Pendleton Woolen Mills: The Men’s
Wool Plaid Shirt, http://www.pendletonusa.com/custserv/custserv.jsp?pageName=PlaidShirt&parentName=Heritage
(Accessed 20 September 2013)
[This is an excerpt from my Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) Honours Thesis, submitted to the University of Wollongong Arts Faculty in 2013. I am publishing excerpts from this thesis in multiple posts. The thesis aimed to explore the youth subculture of skate punk, how its expression perpetuated authenticity through the aesthetic form of the music video, and how this was reflexive of society at a deeper social level].
[copyright 2023]